Friday, December 7, 2012

Blessing the Rains in Africa

So you know that 80’s song “Rains down in Africa”? well it
has been stuck in my head since my brother Jeremy posted a comment about it on
my FB wall before I left for Africa, and well a few weekends ago I actually got
to Bless the Rains in Africa.

In fact every weekend I have been privileged enough to go on
some incredible adventures. Doing a rain dance with a Massi Tribe almost seems
normal these days.

I met a hiking group and have signed up to climb Mont
Kilimanjaro this new years. I am pumped, and so for training a few weekends
back we went on a 28 Km hike of Mont Suswa. Mont Suswa is a HUGE reserve, protecting
animals, traditional Massi tribes and the natural geological exibits. We first
hiked out to the caves, and anyone who knows me, knows how much I love caves. They
were huge, formed by lava flows from when the Suswa volcano was active. Our
Massi guide took us through the “shit Shower” a small tunnel through extremely dense
bat populations and you can guess what happened. It was beautiful and we had a
blast.

Then we also past a couple traditional Massi villages. We
got to learn how they harvest steam produced by the geothermal activity in the area
and use it for their water. We got to see their small huts made only from dung
and sticks. And they were doing this dance (lots of jumping) in their traditional
attire apparently calling the rains down to finish the short rains so they
could start their migrating the following week without rain. And we got to join
them, so I kinda got to bless the rains in Africa. How cool is that?

Then we walked to the cone of the old Suswa volcano, it is a
double caldera, meaning that it erupted once and blew a big crater in the cone,
then in the crater another volcano cone formed and when that one exploded
another crater was created. Basically it was beautiful. We walked through a
HUGE jungle forest in the crater. Surrounded by monkeys, snakes and had to keep
an eye out for leopards in the trees.

The following weekend I went on a camping trip with a group of
couch surfers. We camped at Boyor Subuk National park. Couch surfers are fun
because it was such a mix of people from around the world. We went on a great
hike up one of the peaks on Saturday. Watching monkeys of all varieties,
actually buffalos (not to be confused with the Bison found in the states). For many of the Kenyans it was their first
camping experience, so I got to teach so many how to put up a simple tent. The
evening was filled with many silly group games, lots of food and just a great
time. At one point a baboon somehow got into the car with the food and made off
with 2 loafs of bread, and then sat eating it not 20 ft away from us in the forest
taunting us with his steal.

Sunday we walked from the national park to 14 Falls. It was
an incredible walk that took us down a dirt path through many small villages.
Most of these places never see a white person, so the crowd of children following
me grew bigger and bigger but they showed us the back way to the river, it was
pretty cool.

I had no idea what to expect with 14 falls, and let me tell
you, my mind was BLOWN. It is a HUGE river that drops down about 50 ft in some
places to create an entire crescent shaped waterfall range, you can kinda tell
the 14 separate falls, but really they all combine to form one HUGE waterfall. Now
sadly this weekend was one that I forgot my camera, my waterproof shock proof
camera… so pics are sadly limited. But we climbed down the side of the water
falls to try and get to the rocks at the bottom, to do that we had to cross extremely
fast powerful rapids on the most questionable falling apart wooden “bridge” (it
was more like a ladder on its side). We were already slightly questioning this
as we were crossing when they pointed out a giant African Crocodile swimming
below us. My stomach definitely dropped- but we made it safe. And a local
Kenyan tribesman informed us that for $3 he would show us a safe lagoon to swim
in and even take us up to one of the waterfalls you can jump in. Now you should
know a couple things about Kenya. 1st is most Kenyans do not swim. They
might get in water, but only up to there waist. So people swimming is odd to
them. 2nd white people are rare, so a swimming white person is a spectacle
to them. Needless to say, I jumping off the water fall into rapids drew a
crowd. 3rd is that trash and waste of any kind is a big problem in
most rivers here. So that water was some of the most polluted, dirty water I
have ever been it. And yet the falls were amazingly beautiful, and jumping off
30ft falls is always exhilarating. It made for quite an experience.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just climbing over the
rocks, climbing up natural roots of trees up on top of huge boulders and diving
into the water. It was a paradise for me.

Then this past weekend I FINALLY got to go explore my own
backyard – Hell’s Gate National Park.

(This is the ONLY map for Hell's Gate, it is posted on the entrance to the park)

YES, this is the place that inspired the drawers for one of
my all time favorite movies – The Lion King. Fisher’s Tower, inspired Pride
Rock, and the gorge looks exactly like where Mufassa was killed by wildebeest. Its
one of the few National Parks that lets you bike in and around the park. So we
mountain biked through the park, zebras,
wildebeest, warthogs, giraffes, buffalo all around us. Gorgeous mountains and
cliff faces everywhere (rock climbing is really popular in the park). Then that
lead us to the gorge. The gorge is one of the main attractions in the park, you
are required to pay for a guide if you want to go down into it and explore the
devil’s bed room, devil’s shower, hot and cold springs, climbing, swimming,
waterfalls and every other kind of natural playground equipment you could
imagine.

All of this, literally in my backyard of where I am living
in Kenya! SO MUCH FUN! By the time we got back to my shack we were exhausted
from a full day of hard core fun in the sun. Good thing my Kewi friend who lives
down the path from me was grilling for us an entire leg of lamb. I have many
plans for continued exploration of the gorge complete with rock climbing and
mountain biking. Like I said, it’s a rough life here.